Chapter 5 - Three times the charm

Time waits for no one. It keeps on going with its steady pace regardless of the whims of the feeble mortals, or even those that proclaim to have a higher standing, a higher measure of power brimming within their fleshy frames.

Since Aziel's last clash and eventual victory over the giant snake monster, several months have passed by. Throughout those months, he has been searching for more creatures to assimilate to make himself stronger. To claim back what he had lost.

Still, his smile was no longer honest, despite having shaped into a much more agile, slender bipedal frame. He had managed to completely shed his theropod origins, and now was standing on two firm legs, sporting a frame mostly reminiscent of a humanoid, albeit with deep reptilian, lizardlike origins.

The dark, brown thick scales that covered his entire frame was like genuine armor from some medieval fantasy. As if the fabled Dragon Hunters have put to use the magical materials from their latest prey.

The jagged, long and curved ebony claws reflected the sun's luster while also providing their host with an aura of true apex predators.

Aziel's build, as it grew once again to an astonishing full 8 feet, whilst it would have made him a genuine monstrosity in the modern urbanized world, it wasn't that exaggerated when compared to the multitude of titanic creatures roamed these prehistoric lands he had seen since his arrival.

Creatures with the sizes of literal mountains, with legs thicker than most trees shook the earth and disposed of the soil with each earthquaking step.

Not so long ago, he had come across a massive tank-like animal, during one of his excursions. It was roughly the size of an elephant, sporting armor that had seemed to put a modern-day tank to shame, covered in spikes and thick layers of hardened skin. It also had a hammer-like appendage at the end of its tail.

The creature was fairly powerful, as Aziel watched it withstand all the attacks of a bigger dinosaur and then proceeded to shatter its leg with one swing of its tail, completely crippling the predator. Once the beast was on the floor wailing in unimaginable pain, the tank-like dinosaur raised its tail, slamming it into the head of the reptile crushing it to pieces and putting it out of its misery in mere seconds.

After it left, Aziel went up to the bludgeoned carcass and swiftly absorbed it. In doing so he gained a small boost to his scales sturdiness, his muscle strength and density increased once again as well as his claws and fangs gained some additional sharpness. His tail, that so far was mostly useless, also gained some helpful traits and began its first change.

In addition to becoming slightly thicker, several more joints have been formed inside it allowing even more dexterous maneuvers. He could finally fully feel it, sort of similarly as an extra limb that grew from the wrong side of his body.

Examining it, he found it to be much stronger than he previously thought. He tested this by first stomping it into the ground then began to slowly lean against it increasing his weight. Seeing that it could support his full weight without feeling any strain, Aziel then looked for a nearby tree and slammed against it with full force. 

The tree put up zero resistance and was easily blown to splinters by this singular swing. It felt as if he was hitting a twig, not a tree comparable to the thickness of a grown man.

His unique physiology, the [Essence Restitute] selected the most dominant traits from all the similar genomes of the mass of assimilated creatures. He was becoming more and more accustomed to this harsh new world, not only surviving but reveling in the challenges of day-to-day life. He was slowly but surely becoming a true reptilian as he kept consuming the prehistoric animals.

He soon escaped his thought process when he noticed the tank-like creature getting a little too far away. Not wanting to lose this new walking treasure trove, he chased after it to see where it was headed. 

Once he finally caught up, he saw it was integrating itself back into a larger herd of similar looking animals.

Wanting to spectate more and hope to pry more of the peculiar creature's secrets open, Aziel began to circle around the group, making sure to keep his presence hidden while studying the group of living tanks.

After a while, he noticed one of them leaving the group by itself. Taking this opportunity, Aziel slowly went around and followed after the creature.

Staying hidden as his main priority, he sneaked after the animal unnoticed.

The creature soon arrived at a meadow. Stopping in its tracks, it began to calmly engorge itself by eating the lush green grass that was sprouting from the rich soil. Seeing this, Aziel snuck up behind it with his claws all ready and prepared beforehand.

Lunging himself at the creature, he swung his claws at it as hard as he could against its thick backside.

*CLANK!*

'What the…'

To his utter shock and growing dismay, Aziel's claws that so-far knew no obstacle, no hindrance so far were easily bounced off of the beast's back, leaving behind no trace of damage, not even a blemish. It was as if he was trying to slice through reinforced steel with a kitchen knife; it didn't even leave so much as a scratch, completely opposing his idea of cutting it in half.

The creature, startled by the sudden attack, swung its tail with an instinctual response, slamming it into his side.

*CRACK!*

"AAAAAARGH!"

The amount of pain Aziel felt at that moment was unbearable. His entire left side shattered, his arm, and what felt like at least three of his ribs were destroyed on impact. He felt his broken ribs piercing his organs, causing him to fall to the ground, writhing in pain before he could gather his thoughts due to how disoriented he was.

Yet the creature, now aware of the strange-looking enemy that had made an attempt on its life, was not forgiving. It raised its fearsome tail and with a sudden surge of its strength utilized, it mercilessly slammed down.

As the spiky appendage made contact and sunk deep into Aziel's back, he could hear yet another round of cracks. His spine clearly, obviously shattered to pieces. 

Aziel coughed up several mouthfuls of blood before with the unbearable, searing pain, he swiftly lost his consciousness.

Seemingly satisfied by the outcome of their clash, the creature snorted coldly, before he turned around and left Aziel's broken body on the ground floor of the meadow. Not bothered what its opponent's fate would ultimately be, the beast made its way back to its group.

The shattered, broken corpse of Aziel remained still for a while before tremors finally began to spread around the surface. Originating from somewhere deeper in the center of the fleshy gore of the mound, it dissolved into the same primordial viscous substance once more, proceeding to seep beneath the soil in the next couple of minutes.

His trait, [Essence Restitute] kicking into full gear for the third time in this world, his body was reconstructed from the base once more. At the same time, his vessel evolved yet again, evolving into its third iteration.

Sucking up the rich essence stored around, the surrounding meadow was slowly drained of its previous bright luster. The previously bright emerald green leaves were rapidly dried up as they aged visible to the naked eye.

Some hours later, the same-looking humanoid figure, Aziel's body could be seen lying on the now dried-up, parched portion of the land. The gruesome remainder of his third defeat is nowhere to be seen.

The sun had long receded below the horizon when Aziel's body was fully restored. All of the brutal damage he had sustained was now fixed, and his body was now more attuned to take higher levels of the blunt force trauma and abuse. All that was left for him was to wake up from pain-induced slumber.

All the months of work, and energy he had gathered were once again completely used up. Yet, even that seemed inadequate as the surrounding flora was also sucked dry of its vital essence during his latest slumber.

A bit more time had passed, the night had long replaced the daylight luster when Aziel finally began to stir and wake up. Opening his eyes and adjusting, he realized that he was spread out on the floor and that he was gazing at the starry night sky.

'What the hell happened?' He pondered, lost in confusion.

Slowly, the events that lead to his third demise began to resurface from his stored memory.

'Another one to the list…' He growled with anger, recalling the shameful blunder he had made.